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Before going to buy equipments it is very neccessary to know what kind of servies you are going to use in your network, whether it is only data or Data and Voice both, accordingly you may go ahead with equipments planning.

as you are planning to go ahead with Cisco equipments for network upgradation but it always better to planning per future but not per your current requirement, as per your provided details you have about 400 nodes in network so for CORE managiability you can use 4500 E series switch and for access-switches you can use 2900 S series. you can also recommond your requirement to Cisco support directly and they can also suggest you some more good options. These switches has both Data and Voice support capability.

here is data sheet for suggested above two devices and contact detail for support may help you in planning -

Cost difference between PoE and a non-PoE solution is BIG. The customer needs to appreciate this fact and seriously decide if they need PoE for a future IP Telephony solution. Note that some 48-port switches come as either half PoE or full PoE.

Also, 3750-X is an edge switch, not core switch. OK, so you can use them as core switch in small businesses, but not a hospital - in my opinion.

Again, Linksys are aimed at small businesses.

I would strongly recommend against any single uplink anywhere in your design.

2960 cannot be stacked. You need 2960-S to enable stacking. Stacking will also enable you to load balance across multiple uplinks and also avoid Spanning Tree having to actively block an uplink.

Finally, I would steer clear of the 2960-S 'LAN Lite' IOS as it cannot be upgraded and is very limited in feature set.

What about figure 2 in the link below, if you need a low cost collapsed core/distribution layer solution. I'm not saying it's suitable, because we don't know all the details, but it strikes me as much more appropriate than what you have in mind at the moment: -

Leo is right, we need a budget, because the cost difference between an all-modular chassis solution (i.e. 6500 and 4500 series) and an entry level all-fixed chassis solution (i.e. 4500-X and 2960-S series) is massive. Depending on all the customer requirements, the former could easily be twice the cost.

By the way, I'm not suggesting you have to go one way or the other. You can mix the two chassis types. I'm just trying to make the point that costs can vary massively. Often, what a customer would like and what they can afford are very different.

I don't like the sound of this. I mean, there are a few guys/gals here who "operate" on medical facilities. 2960/2960S in a hospital environment is something I would NOT recommend.

3560X/3750X ... OK, you may "get away" of using this model as a cabinet/floor switch, but as a core??? Not a chance.

4500R+E with Sup7E or Sup8E? I wouldn't use this as a core. I would use this as a cabinet/floor switch. If I get the 8E, the more I'll use this as a floor switch. I wouldn't use a Sup8E as a core switch. This particular supervisor card, with WLC enabled, was not designed to be a core switch.

Hmmmm ... 3560E/X as a core switch. Look, if you said 3750X as a core switch then I'd try my best to make a good argument.

One good thing about the E/X range are dual power supplies, USB port (very, very important for me) and 10 Gbps uplink. Ok, the only thing I'm not "comfortable" in using a 3560E/X as a core is the number of ports. Ok, let's say you can connect up to 48 clients. What happens if you have more? So you put another 3560E/X and what, connect them together in a chain using 10 Gbps? This is where I said, if you had 3750E/X, then I'd make a good argument as the 3750-series can be stacked to form one logical switch with a 32 Gbps backplane. Very handy.

Ok, back to your original question, 3560E/X and why it's not suitable as a core switch. In my opinion? MPLS or the lack of MPLS support, no stacking, 10 Gbps.

Chassis-based as a core switch is very attractive because you can have the following:

1. Redundant power supply - If one fails, the other one chugs along;

2. Redundant SUPERVISOR card - If one fails, the other one chugs along. Near-hitless switchover.

3. Plug-n-play line cards - You want to add a new card? No problem, insert it. No outage. You want to reboot a card? No problem, remove it and it won't affect the rest of the chassis.

4. Backplane speed - Backplane of a 4500R+E with a Sup7E is 48 Gbps. It's higher, for goodness, than the 6500E with Sup720.

5. 10/40/100 Gbps - Good gosh. I'm talking about 5 years down the road. How many 10 Gbps can a 3560E/X support? Take, say a 6509E with Sup720 and 6716-10 up to your eyeballs. Now how many is that? At least 130 ports at 10 Gbps (6716 has 16 10 Gbps ports, and you have, say 8 plus the Supervisor card has 2). I know it's not recommendable density but I'm just putting stuff into perspective, but, say you have Sup2T card ... Kaboom!

Cisco's new mantra is this:

1. If you want to push 40/100 Gbps, then Nexus 7K;

2. If you want to push A LOT of 10 Gbps, then Nexus 5K/7K;

3. If you want to push 1 Gbps and a few 10 Gbps, then 6500E with Sup2T (full MPLS support) or 4500R+E with Sup7E/Sup8E (VRF-lite only).

Thanks leo that was really good stuff.............In my network i m working with

C3560E so.........Anyway....u are focusing on the feature's of the each devices......I thought there might be some Problem with it.....May be due to like of Budget our Manger switched to C3560E till now its ok........lets see what comes in near future......

And my network is a kind of like that what George have described........

We network guys have to play dark magic here. We need to have a crystal ball and we need to force management to look into it. Why?

1. Because the network infrastructure you want to invest in is expensive;

2. Installation of peripheral gear is equally expensive.

Take our case here. We were planning to roll out wireless to a site. We coordinated with the site to remove ancient 2950 and replace them with PoE switches and 10 Gbps. This went fine. When our crew returned to do a wireless site survey, and this was in 2010, I was horrified when the "IT administrator" asked, "WHY do we need wireless?"

I nearly reached for a plastic bag (so I can cover his head and soffocate him to death).

Two years later, this site kept badgering us to put more wireless access point in.

In another case, a site questioned our good intention to upgrade to PoE switches. Boys and their toys, was their reason. So what we did was we invited the knuckle-head to a new site with PoE and VoIP. He was floored. We told him their site won't get VoIP until their switches were upgraded. We got the go-ahead the next day.

My point is this: Look outside. Go to other hospitals and see what technologies are they deploying.

i need to configure this switch in order to work first the 2 core switch for redundancy then each catalyst switch 2960 connected to the core with 2 uplink each uplink for each core switch that way i have rendundancy in the connection then i need one vlan

i need help to configure this switch to work perfectly with each other in best redundancy mode any configuration for this switch will be very helpfull for me

Hi George. The forum is a great resource and people are always willing to help. However, my view is that the best way forward is to get someone experienced involved. It's only basic CCNP stuff, but if it's new to you, then you could easily miss other fundamentals that are key to a long-term sucessful implementation. This is a hospital after all. It's more important to get the basics right than getting all the latest features implemented. Hope you don't mind my comments. I've been in your situation when starting out, so that's partly why I write this. Best to learn from someone experienced, if you can. Then you'll be flying solo with confidence and a solid understanding.